Lahore:
While educational opportunities have been few and far between for sexual minorities in Pakistan, a local NGO has stepped in to create an international platform for the development of transgender people in the country. The Gender Guardian (TGG), an NGO that trains and educates transgender people in Pakistan, has partnered with several foreign NGOs to allow transgender citizens the opportunity to participate in a month-long training program in four different countries.
Transwoman Sania Abbasi, who is a makeup artist and has been associated with TGG as a mentor for the past few months, is among the many aspirants for the training scholarship. If she is selected to participate in the coveted programme, Ms Abbasi says it will bring her great pride in being one of the first transgender people in Pakistan to be sent abroad for training in social work and social care. “It is a great opportunity for us to be able to represent our country on an international platform, and I have been working tirelessly to achieve my goals. I cannot wait to work alongside international NGOs. I want to learn from them and also share my personal experiences with the world.”
According to The Gender Guardian (TGG) President Asif Shehzad, his organization is committed to providing equal opportunities to transgender people by providing free vocational training and formal education. “We have been teaching and training dozens of transgender people in different skills such as driving, cooking, makeup, sewing, etc. over the past two years. However, through this scholarship, selected participants will be able to use their skills and talents with the world, and for the first time, they will have access to exchange International Cultural and Training. Speaking further about the scholarship programme, Shehzad also informed that The Gender Guardian is working on compiling a digital database of transgender people registered with TGG as well as other people who donate to the organisation. “So far, we have partnered with working NGOs In Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Using our database, we will select candidates every six months to send them to these four countries to receive a month-long training, while people from the same four countries will also have the option to come and train in Pakistan. Our selected candidates will work alongside NGOs in the host country and represent Pakistan at the international level, he explained.
Sania Abbasi believes that this scholarship will allow the people of the world to see the skills and talents of transgender people in Pakistan, who often tend to be stereotyped as people limited to sex work. “As a gender minority, we have few resources to pursue higher education or travel abroad, which is why we have very limited opportunities for employment. She emphasized that this scholarship represents an opportunity for transgender people to show their abilities and break the stereotypes associated with them.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 28y2020.